Lissajous orbits

[n0mad23]

Hi Orbinauts,

In my latest browsing I've come across an intriguing document on Lissajous orbits that I thought I'd pass on. This one specifically deals with figure-8 shaped Lissajous orbits around Earth-Moon Libration point 1. The Libration points have been of real interest to me since discovering Oneil's writing a couple decades ago. L1 is really unstable, but if I'm understanding this document correctly, the Lissajous orbits is the way around the instability.

I see BrianJ's done an addon called Herschel and Planck that uses a Lissajous orbit for the Sun-Earth L2 point.

I need to spend a bit more time really studying this, but it does seem to indicate that creating Lissajous orbits in L-points can provide incredibly stable orbits.

Since the pdf is a bit over 2.5 megs, I'm attaching it here in a zip file.

 

[xlns]

Hi Orbinauts,

In my latest browsing ... 5 megs, I'm attaching it here in a zip file.

I found a really cool article related to L1 Lissajous curves and transit trajectories. +1 Berkeley&NASA! I think you'll enjoy it.

 

[n0mad23]

@xIns - Right you are! Outstanding article you've linked, and I especially like the image showing the trajectory between L1 and L2. It really helps my visualization process!

These two documents have really got me rethinking my assumptions about the Libration points, and secretly hoping that one of the coding wizards here is contemplating doing an MFP that'll do (or assist) both Halo and Lissajous orbits.

Any takers? Please?

 

[dgatsoulis]

I think that flytandem, took up a challenge similar to this one:
http://www.flytandem.com/temp/rosette.gif

 

[flying coffin]

I just posted this http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=23000

in the challenges thread. It's a link to an article about the ARTEMIS spacecraft which entered a lissajous around Earth moon L1, the transfer to
Earth moon L2, then to orbit around the moon. I included links to a couple of
papers that explain the math, but it's a bit beyond me :lol:

 

[n0mad23]

I'm with you flying coffin - it's still a bit beyond me in terms of practical application...yet! And looking at the rosetta gif of flytandem, I'd say we're looking at a Lissajous orbit.

I spent some time in the Earth-Moon L1 point last night in my Tortoise Lunar Craft with the celestial grid enabled doing some manuvering with thrusters in an attempt to visualize it further. Using LangrangeMFD to locate the cordinates of the L point makes me think this is a doable experiment, but I'm going to have to understand the math here better first.

So for those of you also interested in this, I'm linking more research materials I've found.

"Investigation on Low Cost Transfer Options to the Earth-Moon Libration Point Region" - www.iag.uni-stuttgart.de/IAG/people/andreas.stock/IRS_08_S47.pdf

"A Comparison of Lunar Landing Trajectory Strategies Using Numerical Simulations" - from the 2005 International Space Conference - ftp://ftp.dim13.org/pub/doc/International_lunar_Conference.pdf

"Quasi-Periodic Orbits of the Restricted Three-Body Problem Made Easy" - http://www.princeton.edu/~hcil/papers/kolemen-kasdin-gurfil_-_quasi_periodic_orbits_of_RTBP_made_easy.pdf


I'm really curious to find any materials on Lissajous orbits and Libration points 4 and 5. If anyone has stumbled across any, please either link them here or send me an email please.